Adjustable air outlet grill



H. A. WHEELER 2,790,371

ADJUSTABLE AIR OUTLET GRILL Fild. Aug. 18, 1953 April 30, 1957 INVENTOR. Harold A. Wheeler Attorney ADJUSTABLE AIR OUTLET GRILL Harold A. Wheeler, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Delaware Application August 18, 1953, Serial No. 374,865

4 Claims. (Cl. 98-40) This invention relates to refrigerating apparatus and more particularly to an adjustable air outlet grill for use in directing conditioned air into an enclosure.

It is an object of this invention to provide an air outlet grill which may be manufactured at a minimum cost and which includes means for controlling both the vertical and horizontal direction of the air leaving the outlet grill.

Another object of this invention is to provide an air outlet grill which readily lends itself to the use of molded or die-cast parts.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein a preferred embodiment of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary pictorial view showing one application of a preferred embodiment of the invention;

Figure 2 is a front elevational view showing the arrangement of the air deflecting vanes when the same are set to direct the air straight out from the grill;

Figure 3 is a plan view of the grill shown in Figures 1 and 2 with parts broken away; and

Figure 4 is a sectional view taken substantially on line 44 of Figure 3.

Referring now to the drawing wherein a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated, reference numeral generally designates a conventional window sill mounted air conditioning unit having an air outlet grill 12 constructed in accordance with this invention through which the conditioned air is discharged into the space to be conditioned.

The grill 12 includes a main plastic frame 14 having a longitudinally extending air outlet slot 16 through which the conditioned air discharges. A single plastic air deflector vane 18 extends longitudinally of the slot 16 and is pivotally mounted about a horizontal axis on pivot pins 20 carried by projections 22 provided on the rear side of the frame 14 as best shown in Figure 3 of the drawing. The vane 18 is provided with a projecting handle portion 24 which is provided for use in rotating the vane 18 about the pivot pins 20. By raising and lowering the handle 24, it is then possible to adjust the vertical direction of the air flowing through the grill.

The vane 18 supports a plurality of pivotally mounted vanes 35). These vanes 315 are individually and manually adjustable on the vane 18 to different positions of adjustment so as to make it possible to adjust the horizontal direction of the air flowing through the grill. The frictional resistance to movement of the vanes 18 and 30 keeps these vanes from shifting out of adjustment so that the vanes are capable of serving the purposes set forth herein. Each of the vanes 30 straddles the rear portion of the vane 13 and is mounted on a pivot 32 which passes through the longitudinally extending vane 18 and which lies in a vertical plane which is perpendicular to the axis of the vane 18. It will be noted that the nited Sttes Patent 9'' transversely extending vanes'30 are substantially C-shaped between the extreme rear edge of the vane 18 and the vanes 30 to allow appreciable pivotal movement of the vanes 30.

A rearwardly projecting flange 22 is provided at the rear of the frame 14 and partially encloses the vanes 18 and 30 so as'to assist in directing the air flowing through the'grill; The vanes 30 and the flange 22 are so shaped that the vane 30 is free to be adjusted without appreciably varying the amount of clearance between the vanes 30 and the shroud 32. I

The construction and arrangement is such that the vane 18 cooperates with the air passage through the main frame to form two converging air streams. By upward motion of the projecting edge of the vane 18 the main air stream is deflected upwardly as the result of the throttling of the upper portion of the air stream and increasing the lower portion of the air stream. The contour of the shroud is such as to assist in directing the air flowing past the vane 18.

While the embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. In an air grill, the combination of, a main frame having an enlongated slot formed therein, a first relatively long and narrow vane pivotally carried by said frame and extending substantially the full length of said slot for controlling the direction of the flow of air through said slot in one plane, a plurality of spaced vanes, each of said spaced vanes having a slot opening at a portion of its rim in which slot a portion of said first vane is positioned, said spaced vanes being pivotally supported by said first vane at spaced points along the length of said first vane and having air deflecting portions straddling a portion of said first vane and extending substantially the full width of said slot for controlling the direction of the flow of air in another plane in response to pivotal movement of said plurality of vanes.

2. In an air grill, the combination of, a main frame having an elongated slot formed therein, a first relatively long and rarrow vane pivotally carried by said frame and extending substantially the full length of said slot for controlling the direction of the flow of air through said slot in one plane, a plurality of spaced vanes, each of said spaced vanes having a slot opening at a portion of its rim in which slot a portion of said first vane is positioned, said spaced vanes being pivotally supported by said first vane at spaced points along the length of said first vane and having air deflecting portions straddling a portion of said first vane and extending substantially the full width of said slot for controlling the direction of the flow of air in another plane in response to pivotal movement of said plurality of vanes, said first vane comprising a horizontally disposed one-piece plastic element having a portion thereof projecting outwardly beyond the front edge of said frame forming a handle for manually actuating said first vane about its pivots.

3. In an air grill, a main frame having an elongated air discharge slot formed therein, a first vane pivotally carried by said frame within said slot and extending substantially the full length of said slot and having air deflecting surfaces thereon comprising means for controlling the direction of the flow of air through said slot in one plane, a plurality of vanes pivotally carried by said first vane, each of said plurality of vanes having a slot opening at a portion of its rim in which slot a portion of said first vane is positioned, said plurality of vanes having air deflecting portions arranged perpendicular to the air Patented Apr. 30, 1957 extending substantially the f u ll width of said slot for controlling the direction of the flow of air on both sides of: SBidi I QYZLI QiII another-planer I1 fingin grill, & oneepiepeplastic. frame having an ir. 9. 1 1 2? 101 f rmed therein, a'first plastic air. turning vane extending substantiallythediullilengthiofisaidvslot and substantially bisecting said;.-slot andpivotally sup ported at its ends in said frame adjacent the ends-of said 01; aplurality, of substar tially planarxairturning vanes, paced pivot-meanscarried by said first vane-tor supportingsaidplurality of vanesat spaoedpoints on said first vane, said pluralityiof vanes extending substantially the full width of :saidslot and comprising substantially C.-shaped.p1anarportions with them-ms of the C straddling the rear portion of said first vane.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES" PATENTS Barrs Apr. 8,

Guthier Sept. 22, 1925 Young Mar. 22, 1932 Vagliani Nov. 17, 1942 Labus Dec. 16, 1952 Davies Jan, 27, 1953 Kennedy Mar. 3, 1953 Stair Mar. 24,- 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS Sweden Dec. 23, 1 940 

